In what sounds like the first scene in a bad horror film, wildlife officials in Massachusetts have proposed creating a 'Rattlesnake Island' in order to rehabilitate the creature's population in the state.
The plan would involve transporting a colony of rattlesnakes raised in Rhode Island and releasing them on an uninhabited island in the Quabbin reservoir.
While the idea sounds like a promising way to provide a natural location for the reptiles to flourish, local residents are not very happy about their potential future neighbors.
According to officials, they've received numerous calls from people concerned that the snakes will reproduce too rapidly and eventually swim to shore in search of human prey.
While such a scenario seems entirely possible within the realm of a Hollywood film, wildlife experts say that it is unlikely to occur.
A far more plausible problem which will almost certainly emerge is, of course, teenagers daring each other to swim out to 'Rattlesnake Island.'
Source: The Independent